The Governor-General and Council, therefore, immediately gave constructions to their ill-defined authority which rendered it perfectly despotic,--constructions which if they were allowed, no action of theirs ought to be regarded as criminal.
Burke argues that the poorly defined authority of the Governor-General and Council led to despotic governance.
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More from Edmund Burke
The improvements of the National Assembly are superficial, their errors fundamental.
If any of them should happen to propose a scheme of liberty soberly limited, and defined with proper qualifications, he will be immediately outbid by his competitors, who will produce something more splendidly popular.
Whatever they are, I wish my countrymen rather to recommend to our neighbors the example of the British Constitution than to take models from them for the improvement of our own.
They will become flatterers instead of legislators,--the instruments, not the guides of the people.
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